Art vs. Competence in A River Runs Through It

Introduction: A Masterpiece of Themes

A River Runs Through It can be easily described as a masterpiece because it has all the right elements needed to qualify for the title. It possesses powerful themes, a sound storyline, a realistic yet sensitive perspective, and, above all, some truly magnificent characters. While discussing the book, one can often get lost in a myriad of themes woven into this autobiographical text. For this reason, it is important to approach the book from a standpoint to which readers can relate. The book has something to offer everyone — from those who strongly believe in religion and natural force to those who maintain a secular stance on life's larger questions.

However, the one theme that most clearly dominates the rest is that of art and the role it plays in one's life. This theme is closely combined with fly-fishing, which works as the principal device Maclean uses to explain what art truly means and how it differs from mere competence.

The Father's Philosophy: Art as Connection to God

Norman's father, a Presbyterian minister, believed that art was one way man could clearly understand God and His creation. He advocated creativity because, for Norman's father, art was the channel through which man communicated with God and became part of His wider universe. In short, it was not competence but mastery of art that helped man establish a direct link with the world around him. Art was man's way of showing appreciation for God's universe. This is the reason why Norman's father encourages him to create stories — he knows that this art form will bring his son closer to God and to nature.

The father makes this point directly in one of the novella's most quietly resonant passages:

"You like to tell true stories, don't you?" he asked, and I answered, "Yes, I like to tell stories that are true." Then he asked, "After you have finished your true stories sometime, why don't you make up a story and the people to go with it? Only then will you understand what happened and why. It is those we live with and love and should know who elude us." (pp. 160–61)

Fly-Fishing as the Central Artistic Device

It is the art of fly-fishing, however, that most vividly illuminates the difference between competence and true artistry. In this book, fly-fishing is what the author uses to explain why competence is not the same thing as mastery of an art, and why a skilled man does not fall in the same category as an artist. Fly-fishing may serve other purposes in the narrative as well, but it has primarily been used to accentuate the meaning of art — and to pit art against competence in order to reveal which of the two is the true winner.

Paul and Norman: Artist Versus Competent Man

Paul, Norman's younger brother, is the artist in the book, while Norman himself is a man who believes in competence but does not fully grasp the philosophy of art as Paul does. Even though Paul is three years younger, he is far more attuned to his father's philosophy of fly-fishing as an art form. Paul understands what his father means when he says that "man by nature was a mess and had fallen from an original state of grace" (p. 2) and that "all good things — trout as well as eternal salvation — come by grace and grace comes by art and art does not come easy" (p. 8).

This philosophy is deeply ingrained into the narrative, as the theme of art surfaces frequently and the author makes a clear effort to show why art is superior to competence. Competence refers to the effective and serious acquisition of skills. A person who is competent at something possesses the required skills for a given task, but that same person may or may not be an artist. An artist is someone naturally gifted with the right attitude and aptitude for a particular pursuit; over the course of a lifetime, that pursuit becomes a passion, and the attainment of perfection in it becomes the artist's most important objective.

Norman, for example, is competent at fly-fishing, but Paul is the true artist. By contrast, Norman is the artist when it comes to writing, while Paul is not. Nevertheless, it is Paul who has been chosen by the narrative to embody and define what real art is and how it surpasses competence. Paul has mastered the art of fly-fishing, and his entire bearing changes when he is deeply immersed in catching fish:

"He steadied himself and began to cast and the whole world turned to water. Below him was the multitudinous river, and, where the rock had parted it around him, big-grained vapor rose. The mini-molecules of water left in the wake of his line made momentary loops of gossamer, disappearing so rapidly in the rising big-grained vapor that they had to be retained in memory to be visualized as loops. The spray emanating from him was finer-grained still and enclosed him in a halo of himself. The halo of himself was always there and always disappearing, as if he were candlelight flickering about three inches from himself. The images of himself and his line kept disappearing into the rising vapors of the river, which continually circled to the tops of the cliffs where, after becoming a wreath in the wind, they became rays of the sun." (pp. 32–33)

Conclusion: Art Always Wins

Paul and Norman represent art and competence respectively, and throughout the novella we observe that in the contest between the two, it is art that always emerges as the true winner. Maclean's text ultimately argues that competence, however admirable, is a plateau — while art is a continuous, transformative ascent. The fly-fishing sequences make this argument not through abstraction but through vivid, embodied imagery, ensuring that the reader feels, as much as understands, the difference between a skilled practitioner and a genuine artist.

Reference

Maclean, Norman. A River Runs Through It and Other Stories. 1976. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992.